Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-08-20
HORROR OF HoRnoRA

An Immense Excursion Train Plunged
Into q Ditch-The Dead Estimated at
/ Over 200, and the Wounded at Three
Times that Number-Train Wrecking for
Purpose of Robbery Hinted At.
CHICAGO, ILL, August 1.-THE Chicago
Times special from Forest, ILL.,, says: ALI
| the railway horrors in the history of this
country were surpassed three miles east OF
Chatsworth last evening, when an excursion
| train ON the Toledo, Peoria
& Western dropped through a
| burning bridge and over 100 people
were killed and four times tn 1t number were
The train was composed of
six sleeping cars, day coaches
and chair cars and three baggage cars. 1t
was carrying $50 passengers, all excursion
lists, and was bound for Niagara Falls. The
train had been made up all along
the line of the Toledo, Peoria
d Western road, and the excurionists
er, coming from Peoria. Some of the pas
sengers came from Canton, Ell Paso. Wash
ington and in fact all stations along the
line, some coming from as far west as Bur-
Engton, Iowa.
THE TRIP BEGINS.
A special and cheap rate had been made
for the excursion and all sorts of people
took advantage of it. When the train drew
out of Peoria laft evening it was loaded to
its utmost capacity. Every berth in the six
sleepers was taken and the cars carried sixty
people each. The train was so heavy that
two engines were hitched to it, and
when it passed this place it was an hour and
half behind time. Chatsworth, the next
station east of here, is six miles off and the
run there was made in seven MIN
utes, SO the terrible momentum of
fiffoon cnaohna and fun hooUu
engine shooting through space at the rate
of mile minute can be understood.
No stop was made at Chatsworth, and on
and on the heavy train with its living
freight sped through the darkness of the
night. Three miles east of Chatsworth
is little slough, where the
run about ten feet deep and fifteen wide.
Over this was stretched an ordinary wooden
trestle bridge and as the excursion train
came laundering down on it, what was the
horror of the engineer on the front engine
when he saw that this bridge was on fire.
THE FATAL PLUNGE.
Right up before his eyes leaped the bright
flames, and the next instant he was among
them. There was no chance to stop. Had
there been warning it would have taken
wood, iron and human life, and the train
was within 100 yards of the red messenger of
death before they flashed their fatal signals
into the engineers face. But he passed over
in safety, the first engine keeping the rails.
AS it went over the bridge fell beneath. It
could only have been the terrible speed of
the train which saved the lives of the en-
CINE went down and instantly the
deed of death was done. Car mashed into
car, seats piled one on top of another, and in
the twinkling of an eye nearly 100 persons
found instant death and fifty more were so
hurt that they could not live. AS for the
wounded, they we're everywhere.
Only the sleeping coaches escaped, and
ss the startled and half dressed
passengers came tumbling out of
rarely witnessed and such work to do that
it seemed as if human hands were utterly in
capable. 1t lacked but five minutes of mid
night.
THE SCENE DESCRIBED.
Down in the ditch lay the second engine,
Engineer McClintock dead and Fireman
Apologize badly injured. On top piled
the three baggage cars, one on top of an
other like child's card house after he had
swept it with his hand. Then came the six
day coaches. They were telescoped as cars
never were before and three of them were
pressed into just space enough for one. The |
second car had mounted off its trucks, |
crashed through the car ahead of it, crush |
ing the woodwork aside like finder |
and lay there resting on the tops of the |
seats, while every passenger in the front |
car was lying dead and dying underneath. |
Out of that car but four people came
alive. On top of the second car lay the |
third, and although the latter did not cover
its bearer as completely as beneath, its
bottom was smeared with the blood of |
its victims. The other three cars
were not SO badly crushed,
but they were broken and twisted in every
way and every crushed timber
and beam represents crushed human frame
and broken bone.
Instantly the air was filed with the cries
Of the wounded and the shrieks
IF those about to die. The groans of men,
he screams of the women united to make q
common sound, and above all sounds were
heard the agonizing cries of little children
IS in some instances they lay pinned along
side of their dead parents.
FIGHTING